What’s On Great Sacred Music, Sunday, March 3, 2019

I post these playlists weekly with the hope that you might find them useful as you plan your programs. All of my playlists are on Spotify for you to enjoy at your convenience.

GSM – March 3, 2019 https://spoti.fi/2ToDkNP

Don’t forget that we have more choral and organ music programmed
on Sunday evenings beginning at 10 p.m. eastern.

Rob Kennedy
WCPE The Classical Station
Web: TheClassicalStation.org
Facebook: www.facebook/theclassicalstation

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E.G. Monk, arr. by Stephen Cleobury: Angel voices ever singing
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury
Richard Gowers, organ

Giacomo Puccini: Salve Regina
Christine Brewer, soprano; Paul Jacobs, organ
Christine Brewer and Paul Jacobs are GRAMMY Award winners.

John Rutter: Loving Shepherd of thy sheep
Cambridge Singers, John Rutter

The hymn “Angel voices ever singing” is one of twenty hymns found on Hymns From King’s which was released in 2016. Italian composer Giacomo Puccini is perhaps best known for his operas. Fortunately he also wrote some fine songs for solo voice of which his “Salve Regina” is one. English composer John Rutter (1945-) is primarily known for his anthems and carols. He collaborated with Sir David Willcocks on the highly successful five volume series Carols for Choirs.

Jacques Clement: O Maria, Vernans rosa
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Eric Whitacre: Lux aurumque
Eric Whitacre Singers; Laudibus Eric Whitacre
Text by Edward Esch; Latin translation by C.A. Silvestri

Henry Balfour Gardiner: Evening Hymn
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Richard Marlow

There are two people known as Jacques Clément. One was a friar and the killer of King Henry III. The other was better known as Jacob Clemens non Papa, a Flemish composer who flourished in the 16th century. He composed prolifically. American composer Eric Whitacre was commissioned to write “Lux aurumque” in 2000 by the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, Florida. English composer Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877–1950) is best remembered for this warm setting of the compline hymn “Te ante lucis terminum”, although he did write many other works.

Commentary – Dr. Susan Moeser

J.S. Bach: Canonic Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her”, BWV 769
Susan Moeser, organ

According to Wikipedia, “The variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach’s entry as fourteenth member of Mizler’s Music Society in Leipzig in 1747.”

Felix Mendelssohn: Infelice, Op. 94
City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano

“Infelice” sets a text by Italian opera seria composer Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782).

J.S. Bach: Cantata 127, “Herr Jesu christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott”
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Carolyn Sampson, soprano; Robin Blaze, countertenor
Gerd Turk, tenor; Peter Kooy, bass-baritone

This cantata, considered by many scholars to be Bach’s very finest, was written for Quinqugesima Sunday which is the last Sunday before Lent. It was first performed on February 11, 1725 in Leipzig.

Gerald Finzi: Magnificat, Op. 36
Finzi Singers, Paul Spicer
Harry Bicket, organ

Gerald Finzi was commissioned by Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, for a setting of the Magnificat to be sung at the choir’s Christmas Vespers, according to Jeremy Dibble’s liner notes on the Hyperion CD..

Josef Haydn: Motetti de Venerabili Sacramento
Tafelmusik; Tolzer Knabenchor, Bruno Weil
Matthias Ritter, soprano; Simon Schnorr, alto
Benedikt Schillo, tenor; Panito Iconomou, bass

The Tölzer Knabenchor or Tölz Boys’ Choir was founded in the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz in 1956. It has been based in Munich since 1970.

Arwel Hughes: Dewi Sant (Saint David)
BBC Welsh Chorus; BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes
Yvonne Kenny, soprano; Martyn Hill, Tenor
David Wilson-Johnson, Baritone

Arwel Hughes (1909-1988) was a Welsh composer. The conductor (b.1942) is his son. Hughes oratorio dates from 1950 and is scored for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra.